We tend to think of this time of the year as leading us towards an “ending”, the end of the year. Our wise and ancient forbears thought differently. They thought that this time of the year, with the festival of Samhain, what we call Halloween or All Souls, was the beginning of the year. Just as their day started with the evening, so their year started by moving into darkness, the mysterious and magical time of Winter in which the seed is transformed into the new shoot. For more on this, see my story of The King Who Lost His Memory by clicking here.